Romania: Summary

In Romania, electricity from renewable sources is mainly promoted by a quota system. The financial support scheme for new installations producing electricity from renewable sources has ceased on the 31.December 2016. Nevertheless, there has been much discontent with the development of the RES-E market after 2014, due to heavy financial losses of the producers after the number of issued Green Certificates has been reduced. In March 2017, the government has approved a new Emergency Ordinance No.24/2017 with amendments to the country’s main renewable energy law no. 220/2008. The new emergency ordinance cleared up some legal uncertainitites and brought some stability and transparency to the Green Certificate support scheme. Additionally, in April 2017 a new state aid scheme has been approved by Government Decision no. 216/2017 to promote energy production from less exploited energy sources, namely biomass, biogas and geothermal energy. According to the 2017 version of the Romanian National Energy Strategy, there are no plans for a further support scheme for new installations.

Renewable energy use in the transport sector is also promoted by a quota system.

Grid operators are obliged to connect renewable energy plants to their grids without discriminating against certain plant operators. They are also obliged to transmit electricity from renewable sources as a priority. In general, the grid operators are obliged to develop their grids on the request of a plant operator, if the connection of a plant to the grid requires the grid to be developed.

Furthermore, there are policies in place to promote training programmes for RES installers and to enhance the development of RES-H infrastructure.